Standard preamble, this will look at returning venues, a decent sized tour, so some points to cover. Overall, the tour did okay; the numbers may not reflect this, as the tour had, quite honestly, an insurmountable task. Last year's Dontaku tour was Tetsuya Naito's farewell tour, as he announced his departure from the promotion a few days before it started. I would like to imagine that this drew a larger fanbase than usual. This year did not have the liberty of that narrative string. This year's tour drew 15,354 fans in total, with one less show than last year. totalling a 37.96% drop or 5,828 fans.
Road to Night #1
Venue: Korakuen Hall
Attendance: Down 32.62% (1,014 fans total, 491 fan drop)
Main Event: Eagles & Oiwa vs Ice & Ishimori.
Korakuen held its head above the 1,000 fan mark on the first night but fell short on the second. This show had a rough time going against Naito's first match in his departure tour last year. This tour also splits its Korakuen shows in two, while last year only had the singular.
Road to Night #3
Venue: Textport Imbari
Attendance: Up 1.79% (738 fans total, 13 fan gain, Sellout)
Main Event: Fale, Narita & Yujiro vs Oleg, Uemura & Wolf (Uemura's Homecoming)
Uemura proved to be a draw in his home town (who would have thought), selling out Imbari by more than last year. This show was the only sellout of the tour and, unfortunately, the only venue to see a positive number.
Wrestling Redzone
Venue: Hiroshima Sun Plaza
Attendance: Down 31.97% (2,053 fans total, 965 fan drop)
Main Event: Bishamon vs Knockout Brothers (IWGP Tag Team)
Ice & OSKAR showed out here drawing the only 2,000+ crowd of the road to. However, last year was Naito's last show in his "second home" of Hiroshima, also headlined by an IWGP tag match, while this year's result is still impressive and almost matches 2024's 2145.
Road to Night #4
Venue: KDDI Ishin Hall
Attendance: Down 34.72% (737 fans total, 392 fan drop)
Main Event: Akira, Jay, Lee & Newman vs Ishimori, Takagi, Tsuji & X
Another standard road to show with the appearing trend of a ~30% drop.
Hizen no Kuni
Venue: Saga Arena
Attendance: Down 34.04% (1,058 fans total, 546 fan drop)
Main Event: DOUKI vs Tiger (IWGP Jr)
Tiger's last challenge did not draw as well as Despe vs Templario of the previous year, falling the standard ~30% still managed above 1,000 fans however.
Road to Night #6
Venue: Grand Messe Kumamoto
Attendance: Down 35.28% (743 fans total, 405 fan drop)
Main Event: Ishimori, Takagi, Tsuji & X vs Jay, Lee, Newman & Young
House show, so no comment on the action drop stays consistent.
Dontaku Night #1
Venue: Fukuoka Convention Centre
Attendance: Down 14.64% (2,477 fans total, 426 fan drop)
Main Event: El Idolo vs Tsuji (IWGP Global)
A slight recovery from the trend here with the Global Title match drawing a semi-large crowd for the tour, and while it fell short of last year's Dog Pound Steel Cage match, it did outperform 2024's Nemeth vs Tanahashi Global title affair.
Dontaku Night #2
Venue: Fukuoka Convention Centre
Attendance: Down 33.36% (3,603 fans total, 1,804 fan drop)
Main Event: Newman vs Takagi (IWGP Heavy)
The final night was weak in terms of pull, but it is partly unfair to pin it solely on the wrestlers themselves. Last year's affair had Goto vs Newman as well as Naito's final match in the company. resulting in a sellout of 5,000+. It also falls short of 2024's Moxley vs Narita, which pulled 4,000+.
The Misc
Newman, Takagi and Tsuji all main evented the most nights with five nights each.
Road to Night #5 was the first time NJPW had visited the Yamaguchi Butterfly Arena since the Destruction tour 2018.
Road to Night #7 was NJPW's first visit to the Aira City Sports Park Gymnasium since the 2018 Dontaku tour.
Conclusion
This tour was put in a not so great position to compete with last year's. Naito's farewell tour was always going to draw well because, at the time, there was no idea where or when people would see him again. Couple that with a still relatively unestablished champion, and you get this, a respectable number, only 2220 down on 2024 and not a failure of a tour, but one that didn't capture the domestic fan in a way that the previous year did.
Onwards and upwards, however, next is BOSJ nine returning venues and much easier comparisons to draw. I no longer have to preface this by saying "Naito and Tana were still there at this point" (Tanahashi was still there at this point)
Also, a side note, I will do BOSJ, but I will lump Dominion in with it for convenience's sake.
by moagrieve